Wildlife partnership flying high

Vine House Farm, the home of pioneering wildlife-friendly farmer Nicolas Watts MBE and his family, grows 400 acres of bird seed, including 100 acres of sunflowers, and is a haven for a host of wildlife.

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is celebrating a flourishing 10-year partnership with Vine House Farm that has generated a total of £37,329 to help us protect Scotland’s wildlife for the future.

By donating up to 5% of its sales to The Wildlife Trusts Vine House Farm has raised over £1,250,000 to support wildlife conservation across the UK and inspire people to experience wildlife first-hand.

Fourth generation farmer Nicholas has been working the land at Vine House Farm in Lincolnshire since 1964. His bird watching hobby grew into wildlife conservation work and wildlife-friendly farm management, leading to an MBE for services to agriculture and conservation among many more awards.

Nicholas Watts said: “Farming this way is a way of life for us and it brings about great pleasure to see wildlife thriving. I’ve always enjoyed feeding birds and now I’m feeding more than I could ever have imagined with the help of our customers!

Over the last 20 years, thanks to wildlife-friendly measures put in place at the farm, barn owl and whitethroat numbers have quadrupled, and tree sparrow and lapwing numbers have increased ten-fold.

Vine House Farm is one of the UK’s most successful wild bird food businesses. In addition to sunflowers, Vine House Farm grows 240 acres of red millet, white millet, naked oats, oil seed rape and canary seed. Nicholas’ daughter Lucy and son-in-law Robert now manage the conservation award-winning business and 2,500-acre farm, which also grows potatoes and sugar beet.

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Vine House Farm, the home of pioneering wildlife-friendly farmer Nicolas Watts MBE and his family, grows 400 acres of bird seed, including 100 acres of sunflowers, and is a haven …